Odessa

Today, August 23, Foreign Minister Svetlan Stoev starts a three-day visit to Ukraine. On the first day of his visit, Minister Stoev represents Bulgaria at the Crimean Platform, which will be attended by over 40 foreign delegations.

 A representative delegation of the leaders of the Romanian minority in Ukraine had a round of consultations, on Thursday, in Bucharest, with the Secretary of State for Strategic Affairs, Dan Neculaescu, at the invitation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE).

More than 20,000 means of transport with approximately 46,000 people on board crossed the Danube by ferry between Romania and Ukraine, in the first ten months since the commissioning of the border checkpoint in the town of Isaccea, Tulcea County, shows a Coast Guard release sent to AGERPRES.

The Ukrainian authorities must observe the rights of the Romanian historical community to an extent "proportional to the fair treatment" of ethnic minorities living in Romania, Chairman of the Committee on Romanians Everywhere Senator Claudiu Tarziu of the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) told an international forum called "Romanian Communities in the Odessa Region: Efficient Ways to D

The Inspectorate for Emergency Situations (ISU) Delta, in Tulcea County, and the State Department for Emergency Situations of the Odessa region, Ukraine, have begun testing a common platform for the notification of emergencies, within the project "Joint Emergency Response Across Danube - JERAD 2Soft/4.2/70," funded by the European Union.

Across Bulgaria, sirens will sound for two minutes at noon on 2 June 2021 in an annual custom honouring the memory of revolutionary, poet and rebel Hristo Botev, who died in 1876 in the struggle against Ottoman rule, as well as in tribute to all who died for the freedom of Bulgaria.

NATO is boosting its presence in the Black Sea, the organization's Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said after a meeting with Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmygal. The alliance attributed this move to the allegedly growing Russian threat. Kiev and NATO plan to hold joint military drills in Odessa this year, Izvestia writes.

The Council of the European Union on Monday extended until October 2021 the restrictive measures it has imposed on representatives of the separatist regime in Transnistria, banning then from entering EU countries - but observers noted that the list of individuals sanctioned is outdated and includes people who are no longer part of the administration in Tiraspol.

A new ferry crossing point at the border between Romania and Ukraine has become operational, Romania's National Road Infrastructure Management Company (CNAIR) has announced, adding that the first to cross the new point on Wednesday by ferry were international freight trucks from Isaccea.

Ukraine lodged an official protest on Wednesday, after Bulgaria's parliament criticised a planned reform to divide the Bolhrad region in Ukraine's southern Odessa district into five sections. The area is home to a large ethnic Bulgarian community.